Saddle for a Veteran?

[kajabe]

Hello,
My mare is between 25 and 27, she's in box rest at the minute after detaching her superficial digital flexor tendon from her hock and chipping the bone too....BUT she is coming back in to ridden work next spring/summer (fingers x'd).
At the minute she is in a wintec but as her back is changing shape more and more, it doesn't fit her any more. I was thinking of getting a treeless one or a bareback pad as its so hard to find one to fit her shape! We've so far had 7 saddles in 2 years.
Does anyone have any recommendations or advice?
(My budget is £300ish but could stretch to a bit more for the perfect saddle)

Hot choc with mini marshmallows and squirty cream for anyone who gets this far hehe

 

[Lintel]

I have ridden a couple of oldies in treeless saddles and honestly if you are not going to be doing anything showing wise, treeless all the way.
Takes a good bit for yourself to adapt to riding treeless, but the horse in my opinion definatly is more free and able. The couple of monsters I rode were a 21 y.o cob who still had a good bit of weight on him and a 18ish? y.o TB who had withers like I had never seen before and was a touch underweight. (TB's old saddle had been rubbing away at him and he had a couple of old pressure sores).

Now... I am going to have to dodge makes and brands as I have little knowledge but I know torsion and barefoot are highly spoken of, other than that I am useless.
Best of Luck with the girlie! - Will take all the cream you have!!

 

[kajabe]

Thanks lintel. That's really useful.

 

[BlackRider]

I had the same dilemma, and bought a barefoot for my oldie, and I also use it on my "youngster" too (he's now 18!), its fab being able to have 1 saddle in the car, that I can use on both horses.

(I took the medium size pommel out, and replaced it with a soft one - as both different shapes).

I'd also check out the barefoot side in germany, as they often have returns for sale as much cheaper prices.

 

[Spotsrock]

Find equestrian wholesaler on ebay. Affordable foreign ones but well made, safe and comfortable. I wouldn't want to spend loads for an oldie and a new type you may or may not take to. I love mine from this guy and so do my horses, their saddler and their physio